Is First Ave Car Cruise the Wrong Thing to Do?

Many people commented on social media that they immensely enjoyed the First Avenue car cruise on Saturday night in Cedar Rapids and are looking forward to more of them in the coming weeks ahead.

But many others commented their concerns of the groups gathering and congregating, despite concerns that those people could risk passing the contagious coronavirus on to unsuspecting others.

There were hundreds of cars gathered at the old Kmart parking lot on the city’s southwest side before the Saturday night ride began. While many people were keeping a fair distance from one another, small groups tend to gather more members, becoming bigger groups, and ultimately becoming large groups.

So the question remains, is it safe to go cruising on Saturday night?

Perhaps, if we all simply stay in our cars and drive the strip. No more getting out to congregate, no gathering in 1st Ave parking lots or on bridges. Just cruise, right?

Because even if we individually do not agree with the practice of avoiding groups, we cannot deny that others feel differently.And no one wants to face an unnecessary risk of becoming infected, and no one should have to face that possibility.

As a community we owe it to each other and ourselves to maintain social distancing to avoid further spread of the conronavirus.

But it’s questions like these that need to be discussed and ultimately answered before other gatherings like the downtown farmers markets open.

Let’s keep reminding ourselves, we’ve never been through this before! Nothing else like it has ever happened. Which means none of us are experts, and none of us know definitively what is right or what is wrong.

What we do know for a fact is that this virus is a killer. It is not pleasant.

Not everyone who contracts the virus dies, but everyone who dies from this virus dies a painful horrible death.Let’s have some tolerance and compassion for those who may disagree with our opinions simply because they are fearful for the health of themselves and others.